Delivered during the 1999 meeting at the University of Notre Dame, this paper discusses the symbolic power of food imagery, especially its use in the cultural construction of humanity and in the process of dehumanization of oppressed groups. Tracing the use of food and eating imagery to the early seventh century BCE Greek poet Hesiod, Flint-Hamilton demonstrates the importance of studying early Classical texts to help us better understand modern-day oppression and the legacy of slavery.